Military Computer Books (Waz: Off-topic...)

;-) Clearing the snow from my glasses, I saw Sam Ismail typed: [nip] Time for a quick history lesson... (and yes, it's on-topic.) My Uncle is a lifer in the Navy (just now retiring - 28 years) and he was one of the highest ranking NCO's in the entire Navy (spent 14 years at E-9) and the first time I'd ever been to his house was when I was 8 years old (in '75)... He'd hand-built a little "computer" that (while unimpressive to "normal" people) converted binary to digital and back, and displayed everything on a little 8# 7-segment calculator display... it was all done with SSI chips. He was just finishing up building it when we arrived, and had gotten it working. I recall (and this is amazing for a kid of 8) that the rest of my family was "That's cool, Ed... How do you get to Disneyworld?" but I was "Wow... how does that work?" and my uncle showed me. 20 minutes later, I learned everything about it, including how to convert binary to decimal and back. I was hooked. He was amazed. He showed me the schematic he drew, and I thought they were awesome, and I wanted nothing more than to build something like that... and I've not changed since. When we left Florida, my uncle gave me a gift: some graph paper and colored markers like he'd used to draw his plans. I "drew plans" all the way back to Upper Michigan, and never looked back. Well, a few years after, he visited us in Michigan and asked me if I was still serious about computers. I emphatically said "Yes" so he gave me 4 of his old Navy course books from the early 70's -- Mathmatics Volumes 1, 2, and 3; and "Digital Computer Basics"... When I did all the tests in Math Vol. 1 and most of the tests in Vol. 2 without needing to read the books, he was amazed. He worked with me the entire week he was in Michigan to finish Vol. 2, and I finished Vol. 3 & DCB on my own. That man did more to nuture my interest in computers than the rest of my family combined, and those books (which I still have -- they're in my library) are worth more to me than any other book I own. Just this past year, my wife's uncle was throwing out some "old books" when he decided I might just like them, so he dropped them off at our house. Wouldn't you know it, but there was a Navy coursebook in "Introduction to Programming in BASIC" in perfect shape, revised in 1983. Even tho I never even owned a computer until 1985, the seeds of interest had been planted a decade before. Sam, thank you for reminding me of that wonderful piece of my past. Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed, Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not* zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.